Can not reflash the BIOS

[Windows98]

Hi everyone, I have a problem trying to reflash a BIOS on the computer. I think the motherboards BIOS might have somehow got corrupted and right now the hardware isn't working properly:

The long story:

My brother and I were playing a game on LAN when all of a sudden his computer just restarted. His computer then kept on restarting so my first theroy was that maybe his computer had some heating issues. I opened up his case and it was very dusty on the inside. I wiped the dust from most of the parts as well as the inside of the case and started the computer again. This time it looked like it started fine but when prompt to login screen came the computer restarted.

The second theroy was maybe bad software, I unplugged all the CDROM and Hard disk from the computer and start it up again. After a few minutes of booting the computer would just restart. The restarts seem to be getting worst and worst. This time it restarts during "verifying DMI pool data."

This made me lead to my third theroy of bad hardware. I took all the hardware out and placed it into another computer. ( diffrent model computer but they both accept the same hardware specifications ) After putting all the hardware to the second computer everything seemed to work fine there were no sudden restart. After checking that the hardware were all ok I put everything back into the first computer. This time the restart was the worst it has been. The computer would freeze up or when it restarts the computer would completley crash. ( The CD ROM lights would flash like crazy, so would the computer LED lights. the power button would not work and the reset button didn't do anything. You have to unplug the computer's power cable because there was no way to turn it off normally. )

This lead me to conclude that either the motherboards BIOS was corrupt or the motherboard was just going bad. I want to see if the motherboard is corrupt however the motherboard is not detecting the hardware properly. If it does detect it properly it fails to let me boot from any device, CD ROM or floppy the computer would just sit at the same screen or a message that says boot failed.

Some reason's why I think the BIOS is corrupted:

1 ) If I do not plug in all the hardware the computer at startup would struggle. It would give long pauses as if attempt to see if the hardware is really there.. if it does not detect the hardware the computer would just restart. ( This is the startup screen trying to detect the hard drive and CD Drive. )

2 ) If I plug in the hard drive without the CD ROM the computer at startup will still show that the CDROM is still there and after trying to startup it will restart again and again.

I have reseted the COMOS but that wasn't much help as the issues mention above still occured. I downloaded the BIOS from the manufacturer website and try to install it through the floppy however the screen just freezes and the computer refuses to boot any sort of floppy.

I remember I still had the motherboard CD so I thought I put it into the computer and boot from CD. I get a fail to boot message. I try starting up an operating CD and still get the Fail to boot message.

I was wondering if there was some way for me to fix the COMOS or at least get the computer to run the floppy so I can reinstall the COMOS.

If someone has experienced something this bad or has an input on what to do I would be greatful.

Summary:
A) Checked all the hardware and everything was ok
B) Checked to see if it was a software issue and it wasn't
C) The comptuer would incorrectly detect the devices at startup
D) The computer lights would flash crazy and the computer would completley freeze.
E) The computer would refuse to boot any device from the floppy or CD ROM


Computer Specs:
Intel Pentium II 400mhz
160 MB RAM - 64MB -64MB - 32MB
2x CD ROM - Creative Infra CDROM - Generic 52/32/52x CD-RW
2x Hard Drive - Western Digital 9GB - Maxtor 12GB
300w Powersupply
Floppy Drive
ATI RAGE PRO IIC 4MB Video card

If people have aditional questions feel free to ask

[linuxlover]

I experienced this on another pc, it was an extremely faulty ram stick. even bios would freeze, took it out and it ran just fine. try all of them.

[patio]

An incorrect BIOS flash has produced many a doorstop.
You stated you cleaned the inside and it was very dusty. Wiping things won't normally get it all just move the dirt around...
Get a can of compressed air and do a thorough cleaning.
It's possible something became dislodged so recheck all your connections to everything.
You may have also dis-lodged a jumper pin...do you have a MBoard manual to check this ? ?

In short there are alot of things to check but a flash would be the last thing i would do...

[Windows98]

An incorrect BIOS flash has produced many a doorstop.
You stated you cleaned the inside and it was very dusty. Wiping things won't normally get it all just move the dirt around...
Get a can of compressed air and do a thorough cleaning.
It's possible something became dislodged so recheck all your connections to everything.
You may have also dis-lodged a jumper pin...do you have a MBoard manual to check this ? ?

In short there are alot of things to check but a flash would be the last thing i would do...

I guess it could be a heating issue, usually when I start the computer up after a cool down the computer loads... however I have notice something strange. When the computer is loading and I get to the "applying security settings" dialogue box the computer would restart then the restarts would just start going crazy.

After an almost sucessful load the computer would keep restarting and never pass the Verifying DMI pool Data page. There is no error messages.. just Verifying DMI Pool data then you see the Windows 2000 loading bars half way through the computer restarts again.

I just took out all the hardware except for the video card, processor, and RAM and I still get a restart after "Verifying DMI Pool Data" and for some strange reason the computer is hangining at the hardware detection screen. After taking a minute to try to detect the hardware with no success it goes to the next page then restarts. I removed the hard drive and CD out of the computer to check.

I used all the parts from a working computer, the IDE cables, Power supply, RAM, Hard Drive, Processor. and the same results still happen.


*Something I notice. Everytime I reset the COMOS by removing the battery and putting it back in the defaults are loaded. Even though there is nothing but the bare minimum to run the computer. Everytime I enter system setup.. even just to set the date and time then save and exit, the computer would just completley crash. The screen would be blank and the power button /reset button would be completley useless.



To Raptor: I removed all the RAM from another working computer and tried it in this computer. I still the same result.

The motherboard is P2XBL Rev C and I have double checked the jumper settings and all the pins from the manufacturer website all of them seem to be in check.

[patio]

Again do a thorough cleaning, replace the CMOS battery part # CR 2032 ...as always when working inside the case remove all power sources and take anti-static precautions...

I would also swap in a newer known working PSU of the same or greater wattage to eliminate that possibility...

[Windows98]

Well, I figured out what was wrong with the computer.. It appears that I need to get a new motherboard.

I clean the computer with the air can like you recomended and everything seemed fine. I left the computer running for a while when suddenly there was black smoke comming out of the computer. There was a burning smell, I shut down the power immediatley and waited till the burnt plastic smell dissapeared. ( The case was open so I saw the actual smoke comming out )

After fully examing the computer the burnt smell came from the processor slot. The processor is fine.. I think nothing melted it look the same as before however I wish I could say the same for the processor slot.

The processor slot has some black marks from the smoke around it as well as this weird white plastic thing that looks like glue around it... I wonder what melted? The computer had a built in fail safe if the processor got hot.. but there was no way the processor was hot... I cleaned it earlier and waited before I tried starting the compute up then 3 min into startup black smoke started to come out....